How to Get from Peter to Francis: a SHORT History of Papal Elections

A few days ago I told you about the biblical basis for the papacy. Now let’s look at how we got from St. Peter to Pope Francis.

The process of choosing a pope has changed drastically over the years to fit the needs of an ever-growing Church. Back in the days of Peter, the Church quickly centralized in Rome, as the seat of the Roman Empire. Rome remains, to this day, the seat of the Church.

In the early Church, which was under constant persecution, the popes were mainly obscure figures who were able to do what it takes to keep the underground Church going. Eventually the Roman Empire came to accept Christianity, but unfortunately that also meant that secular authorities influenced, if not completely controlled, papal elections.

In 1059, Pope Nicholas II limited participation in papal elections to the College of Cardinals. While this did not entirely end external influence, it did make it a bit harder for rulers to directly influence the outcome of a papal election. It was the first step towards the system that the Church has in place today.

In the year 1274, the Second Council of Lyons was convened in order to regulate the papal election process. The major decree issued by the council was that all electors must meet within ten days of the pope’s death, and that they had to stay secluded until a new pope was chosen. The major driver behind this change was a three year vacancy after Pope Clement IV’s death in 1268. During that sede vacante, the Latin term for the interregnum period between papacies, the faithful Catholics had to take desperate measures to pressure the cardinal electors into actually choosing a pope. First they locked them all in, where only those cum clave, or with a key, could come in or out (this is the root of the word conclave), and then began rationing their food. When those methods failed, the faithful actually tore the roof off of the chapel they were sequestered in, exposing the cardinals to the elements. Finally, they had a pope. The strict time limit would later be slightly relaxed later in church history.

The Western Schism between 1378 and 1417 saw a very complicated situation emerge. Multiple anti-popes challenged papal authority in Rome, and were installed simultaneously in Avignon, France.

By this time, the papal election process largely resembled the modern process. Until 1621, many votes for the papal election were done by acclamation; that is, voice votes. However, 1621 was the last time that this occurred. Pope John Paul II formally abolished vote by acclamation, and all elections since then and henceforth will be by a full vote by ballot of the College of Cardinals.

And that is how we get from Pope Peter to Pope Francis!